The Blazers
by Kris10T
Summary: Katara and her brother Sokka are the new kids at school. Coming from a small town in Alaska hasn't prepared her for life in Los Angeles. She's in for the whirlwind of her life when she's invited to join the schools most popular clique, The Blazers. She just hopes she can survive the school year without losing herself in the process.
1. Chapter 1

"I hate LA"

It's the first thing she blurts out to her brother upon entering the kitchen in the morning.

"And a good morning to you too sis, protein shake? He says while extending out his arm out to her while holding out a glass.

Katara gives him what some would call the _stank eye._

"Great, you've already adapted one of Los Angeles' prime LA'isms, proud of yourself? We've literally have only been here two weeks!"

"Hey it's very warm here. Warm weather means more sleeveless shirts. More sleeveless shirts means more arm exposure. I can't walk around with flabby arms, so I need to quickly adapt to the LA ways."

"I think bony is a better adjective to use when describing your arms."

But Sokka carries on like he hasn't heard her, slurping away at his liquidated soy.

Katara lets out a huff and moves to walk to their cupboard to get out some breakfast cereal.

She hasn't taken kindly to LA since moving here two weeks ago. The culture shock has hit her by storm.

She's moved from a city that was primarily rainy, snowy, and cold with a population of 800; to a city that's dry, literally fiery, and warm. and has a population of a whopping four million.

Growing up and spending the first sixteen years of her life in Yakutat, Alaska hasn't readied for well… all of this.

Within two weeks she's had to buy a completely new wardrobe, a wardrobe that is better suited for the warm weather, rather than the frosty weather she grew up accustomed to,

She's used to knitting her own sweaters, mittens, and scarves, and now she figures she'll probably have to resort to knitting skimpy crop tops if she takes in consideration the weather and culture.

All in all, she hasn't settled in to her new life well. She envies Sokka, he's loving it here. Her brother is the type of person who turns lemons into lemonade. He makes the complete best of any situation he's put in to. He's quick to adapt in any situation he's thrown in to.

Katara is the polar opposite. She's always loved and valued where she's come from. Growing up in a small town, completely isolated from the world has never made her upset. Quite the opposite actually. She loved being from a small tight knit community, a community where families and neighbors grew up together in harmony, bonds that spread between families through generations.

Yakutat was a town where you earned your keep, whether it be by hunting, knitting, fishing, everyone made a team effort to ensure everyone lived comfortably.

This type of comradery completely nonexistent in LA from what she's observed in her two weeks of living here and in film and pop culture. Here, everything is a game, everyone here is in it for themselves, looking to climb the social hierarchy. She finds it reprehensible.

Granted, she hasn't properly met anyone here yet, but she can only imagine what her first day of high school has in store for her. Which is why she is in such a crabby mood.

She takes a look back at Sokka and sees him slurping up each last droplet of his protein shake, and the sight makes her slowly lose hope in humanity.

Sokka pulls the pick up truck into the school parking lot, a parking lot that's filled with ferraris and convertibles. 

Katara refuses to feel shameful about it though. She reminds herself again that she's proud of her humble beginnings.

She steps out of the truck, processing her surroundings. She notices how many students there are, which reminds her how insignificant her presence must be here. In Yakutat everyone mattered, it was weird to not make eye contact with someone a give them a greeting.

She approaches the entrance of her school with Sokka, keeping her head up high and proud. She won't conform to the social norms, she will not walk around with her phone in her hand all the while not taking note of her surroundings.

She's gotta admit to herself that she's scared shitless, but at least she's not in this completely alone. She has her brother.

She turns her head to look at her brother for support and finds him missing. She panics. Did he get lost already? Is he in trouble. She's always been overprotective of her brother. She always feels like she has to compensate for the lack of maternal figure in the household.

She moves her head swiftly from left to right scanning the hall for her brother. She spots him and he's… flirting?

He's standing in front of some bulletin board, his arm raised and he's leaning against the board, standing before some girl with short light brown hair. She's giving him a smug smile in response to his flirting.

Katara lets out the biggest eyerolls of eyerolls. She is irate.

_Just who is he to completely abandon me on our first day, for the first pretty girl he could get ahold of! I was so worried about him!_

She inwardly muses.

_Forget him, _she thinks. She can take care of herself. Just a sixteen year old girl who's never been to a school that didn't include grades K-12. It's not like just because she's only ever encountered about a dozen other people in her age group doesn't mean she's gonna find it difficult making friends here. She's got this! 

She holds her head high and saunters off into homeroom. She refuses to be intimidated by this city and its inhabitants.

_I won't let them win._

The day is toppled off with her being completely mortified in front of her entire homeroom classroom.

The school's principal found it necessary to make a little visit to her homeroom and have her introduce herself to everybody.

He mentioned that Katara came from a very small town in Alaska, and she was of inuit descent. She's pretty sure three quarters of the class had no idea what that meant.

He also thought it would be a good icebreaker for Katara to share with the class about her culture, he broached the subject by saying "Tell us about your "people."

She tried to explain a bit about what it's like back home while also trying to get the point across that she wasn't some foreign oddity.

Katara made it known to the class and that stinkin principal that Alaska was in fact IN AMERICA, and yes; English is her first language.

She explained how she would go fishing back home and hike, as she spoke with the dullest tone, knowing that these teens couldn't give a flying hoot about her or where she's from, but also to spite this ignorant man they call principal!

He seemed unimpressed by the activities she listed, given that they're pretty much the same things people do here.

He dismissed himself, and implored the homeroom to make Katara feel welcome and help her adjust. He was met with silence.

And to top it all off, her homeroom teacher HAD to mention that she heard from her ancestry DNA test that she was 14.9% Native American, and asked the class if they too had some inuit ancestry.

The whole thing got derailed within minutes when some students found it necessary to strike up a debate about their confusion about why Native Americans can't be called Indians.

The rest of the day followed with Katara being as lonely as can be. There's not much socialization going on while in class. Katara was only approached once the whole day and that was because somebody asked her to borrow a pencil. They never gave the pencil back.

Gym class was hell, the girls locker room was beyond anything Hollywood movies could ever prepare her for. The fumes from all the different types of perfumes of lotions rang through the air, mixed with a bit of what she could assume was weed, and Katara couldn't go two seconds without choking on her breath. Bras and panties were thrown all over the place. Lewd conversations were rang through her ears, conversations about breast sizes and sexual organ sizes seemed to be the focal point of conversation amongst the girls in the locker room.

Katara couldn't believe her ears. Did these girls have no shame? To talk about this stuff so brazenly and openly boggled her mind.

It was safe to say that she didn't make any small talk with anyone in that locker room. She's never felt more alone. 

Fortunately, she and Sokka shared the same lunch period. She was still immensely pissed at Sokka for ditching her first thing in the morning, but due to how lonely the day has been for her, she decided to let it slide just this once.

She ate lunch with Sokka and the girl he was flirting with this morning, whose name she learned is Suki.

Meeting Suki was the only highlight of her day, she was warm, welcoming, and seemed to see through her brothers B.S, but at the same time didn't mind it.

She was curious and asked them questions about their background without being woefully ignorant and offensive about it. She shared with them some tips about how to survive the modern high school experience, tips Katara took into consideration, while Sokka just gawked at her.

She beckoned Suki goodbye when the period rang, and Suki invited them to have lunch with her again tomorrow. She just hopes Sokka's shameless ogling doesn't get in the way of this potential friendship.

She ends the day on a positive note, with Marine Biology being her last class. She loves Marine Biology, she loves marine life, the water, everything about the ocean she's completely in love with. It's the closest she's felt to home the entire day.

The bell rings for dismissal and she's the first one out the door in her class. She can't stand to be in this school for another minute. She figures its too much exposure therapy for one day.

She scrummages through the halls making her way towards the exit, she's almost there…

All of a suddenly she is picked up off her feet, someone grabs her from her lapel and places her down gently in front of the lockers on the side of the hallway.

Initially she is too stunned to speak, but when the shock wears down she moves to open her mouth and lambast whoever did that when she's met with an index finger to her lips.

The rude finger to her lip isn't what stops her from sticking up for herself, it's the sheer empty silence she's met with. She also notices how the hallway is split apart, like everyone's making way for the grand entrance of some important person.

She's so thrown by the way everyone is reacting right now that her anger dissipates, and she finds herself tiptoeing to see over people's heads so she can get a clearer opening at the scene in the hall. She wonders if some type of moviestar is making their way through the hall. She's ashamed to admit that she can't withhold her own curiosity.

She's able to catch a glimpse of what's going on in the hall. She sees three girls strutting confidently down the hall. The one in the middle obviously leading the charge.

She has jet black hair tied up in a single topknot, with the two single tresses shaping the side of her face. Her eyes honeycoon gold, shiny, looking like they could pierce you and turn you to stone if you looked into them for too long. Her lips are full and glossed to perfection. She's smirking, her face is all knowing. She knows she's got this whole school groveling at her, with minimal effort on her part.

Katara takes note of the people staring at the sight before them. They seem to look more petrified than enamored by the sight of whoever this is. And weirdly, Katara can't blame them. This girl seems… untouchable.

Her other two cronies follow suit. One of them also has jet black hair, but her hair is neatly pinned into two buns at the sides of her head. Her face is anything but smug, quite the opposite, she looks placid. Like the attention everyone's giving her holds no significance. The other one is practically skipping down the hall. She's' the only one wearing a full smile, she has the longest braid Katara's ever seen. The braid bounces from side to side due to the jovial skipping.

_What a weird mix of girls_. Katara thinks to herself.

They've now made their way out the doors of the schools exit. It felt as though to Katara that they were sauntering down the hall in slow motion based off how many observations she was able to make about the three girls in a five second interval.

Everything has seemed to gone back to normal, the middle of the hallway is not cleared out anymore, and everyone seemed to snap out of whatever trance they fell under.

That was the weirdest, trippiest thing Katara has ever experienced in her sixteen years on this earth. She's never seen human beings grovel so openly about other human beings.

Katara overhears a few conversations when she makes her way out of the schools exit.

_Did you hear that Azula is rumored to be cast in the new Steven Spielberg movie as a vampire? Gosh, that'd be the perfect role for her!_

_Did you hear Mai's father is going to run for mayor?_

_I heard Ty Lee slept with over a dozen guys this summer!_

_Apparently Zuko and Mai are off again!_

That's the last sentence Katara listens to before snaps out of the weird fascination she all of the sudden got for the people in her school.

She considers it lapse of judgement and moves on to the exit and out to the parking lot to wait for Sokka to take her home before this place can further poison her mind.


	2. Chapter 2

The rest of Katara's first week of school turns out to be just as much of a doozy as the first day was. Sure, she expected the experience to be unpleasant, but not to this extent.

The students are shallow and vapid. Everyone's constantly got their heads drooped down in a 45 degree angle in order to look at their phone screens, which can't be good for the health of their vertebrae.

Everyone just seems to be lost in their own bubble along with their own cliques, with no interest in anything other than what pertains to them and their needs.

After the scene she witnessed at the end of her first day she realized that this school is not your average American high school.

There is a social hierarchy, and those three girls seemed to be at the top of the food chain. She'd never seen such blind adoration in the flesh. Just what is it about those girls that had nearly everyone in school foaming at the mouth, and kowtowing at their very feet?

Today is her 4th day of school, and she hasn't encountered those 3 girls since, which she finds kind of odd.

To be fair, the school is pretty humongous, with over 4,000 students in attendance, but she expected to encounter them again because of their overwhelming and powerful presence.

For the fourth day in a row; she is yet again eating lunch with Sokka, and her new friend Suki.

While getting to know Suki better she started to gather that Suki is a bit of a loner herself. Being a senior, she had been at this school for well over 3 years, and knows all the in's and out's. She's claimed to know everything about everyone, but doesn't seem to be too keen on the information she's privy to.

"This is probably the worst high school in the city that you two could have possibly wound up in," she remarks candidly; but not without a bit of sympathy. She sinks her teeth into a green apple.

"Wha- what do you mean? It's awesome here!" Sokka says, flabbergasted. "Sunshine all day everyday, extremely healthy vegan food; not to mention, gluten free!" He says, taking a bite out of a piece of his vegan burrito, while obviously trying to withhold the urge to gag. "Plus there are tons of cute chicks, not to mention a football team! Let's go Fire Ferrets, Hoot Hoot!" Sokka cheers, pumping his fist into the air.

Suki gives Sokka a long look. She at first looks keenly observant; trying to make sense of Sokka's buffoonery, but then her facial expression quickly changes to one of mirth.

"Boy, are you easily pleased. If you asked me, the food and drinks taste like dirt, and the "Fire Ferrets" is the most god awful name for a football team I've ever heard."

Sokka looks stupefied at her, but quickly regains his composure.

"Mock their good name all you want, but you we'll the ones laughing when we take home another state championship for the 12th year in a row!" He boasts with pride.

Katara rolls her eyes in complete bafflement, and shoots her brother a nasty glare.

"_When we take home another title!?_ Really, Sokka!? You've only been going to this school for three days, and you've turned into a complete sycophant!" She turns her head to face Suki, addressing her, "Did you know on the way home from school yesterday he made us stop at 5 different sporting stores in order to find the most aerodynamic football!? He's been carrying it everywhere since, and is constantly at my heels telling me to go long. And when I don't "go long" he throws the ball at me anyway! He's thrown it at my head at least four times," she finishes with a big huff.

"Hey sis, we're in LA now. You gotta keep your eyes and ears peeled and sharp. Me throwing the football at you is not just for my physical betterment, but your mental betterment as well! Plus tryouts are next week, and I really gotta drill myself if I want to make starting quarterback."

"I don't remember asking for your help, ! And starting quarterback? You've never thrown a football in your life before yesterday, if you could call that throwing! You were just pelting me in the head," she says grimacing, and giving the side of her head a little rub.

"Like I said sis, LA is all about the hustle and bustle. You need to give your all 24/7, no days off. No slacking! Plus, if I make the football team I can make more friends, which means more invites to parties, which means more gir…" he quickly stops himself from finishing his sentence and shoots Suki a sheepish yet cheeky grin.

She gives Sokka a tight closed mouthed smile, then focuses her attention on Katara.

"You really hate it here, don't you? Well, it's not my favorite place to be either. I moved to LA 3 years ago, I'm originally from Washington State. Though, I can't imagine the culture shock you two must be going through being from a town with only 600 residents, when the school you're in has six times the number of that!"

Katara lets her eyes roam around the cafeteria; scouting out the area. In Yakutat everyone was pretty much the same. Everyone there all led simple lives, their priorities were simple, and everything about the community was completely insular. The opposite can be said about Los Angeles. Katara spotted many different cliques all scattered around the lunchroom. There were the jocks, the brainies, the burnouts, gamers, social media influencers, etc. She'd always thought that the "atypical" high school life was a stereotype portrayed in Hollywood movies. She now sees that she thought wrong. There is absolutely no sense of community here. If you don't fulfill the quota and conform to the rules and principles of your clique, you're basically in this alone.

She looks back at Sokka and Suki and feels an immense amount of gratitude for having a brother like Sokka. They've been attached to the hip since the very beginning; always having one another's back. They've endured tundra-like climates together; fending for themselves and their community since a very young age. They've experienced great sadness and loss, but have come out stronger at the end of everything. Surely, she can survive going to school here for the next few years with her older brother by her side.

Her musings are interrupted, when all of a sudden a wave of silence washes over the cafeteria. The silence is deafening, it strikes Katara to the core and gives her an eerie sort of feeling.

She stares over at Suki and Sokka. Sokka's looking over at one of the cafeteria's entrances and has his eyebrows furrowed in consternation. Suki is looking on as well, but wears a different expression on her face. She looks slightly amused, and wears a smug smile on her face with an odd gleam in her eyes.

Katara turns to see what they are looking at when she jumps from the earcurling sound of chairs screeching; which makes her cringe and divert her attention to the source of the sound. She sees a group of 3 students quickly gathering their food and belongings off the table they were sitting at. They look panicstricken; almost as if they are running for their lives. One of the students is even using a clorox wipe to disinfect the tables and chairs.

Katara hears the sound of heels clanking and yet again spins her neck, almost twisting it due to the rapid movement and awkward angles. Her suspicions are confirmed… it's them.

Yet again they are strutting into the room as if they own it, and stunning everyone into silence whilst doing so.

It's another out of body experience for Katara, and evidently everyone around her. It's as if the 3 of them are walking in slow motion. They are decked out head to do in designer clothing and jewelry, definitely dressed a tad more fanciful than they were 3 days ago. Red seems to be their preferred color of choice.

They head straight for the table in the cafeteria which was just hastily abandoned and disinfected by those terrified students. Promptly, they take their seats, and upon doing so; the cafeteria breaks out into a cacophony of chatter.

"Ummm… what the hell's going on?" Sokka says incredulously, half looking terrified, and half looking intrigued.

"And that is the reason why you two choose the worst school in LA to go to. Sokka, Katara; meet "The Blazers," she says using air quotes.

"The Blazers?" Katara says unable to help sneering.

"Yup, _The Blazers_. Three socialites; who for whatever reason attend public school. Designer clothes, jewelry, makeup, hair; you name it. Queens of (insert name) High. If you thought just the regular students were full of themselves, you haven't seen anything yet."

"Why are they called The Blazers?" Sokka asks incredulously.

"Beats me, it was a name dubbed to them from the media."

"The media!?" Sokka asks, mouth agape.

"Yup, the media. Their ringleader is named Azula, the one who always walks in the middle when they're performing one of their calculated drive-by struts. Her father is a big businessman, a business passed down for generations. He owns and runs the company for that energy drink, I don't know if the two of you've heard of it, it's called _Inferno_?"

Katara scoffs.

"Have we heard of it? Sokka's been chugging about half a dozen of those a day. He hasn't had time to practice his "football" because he's too busy peeing."

Suki giggles, while Sokka glares at Katara.

"For your information, according to Forbes magazine, it's the number one recommended energy drink in the US for all pro athletes!"

"That stuff is not healthy, Sokka. I've done some research on the stuff and there have been reports of them being in on some sort of deal with the FDA that allows them to give out faux ingredients. A number of people have tried to file lawsuits because of the health issues the drink has caused. Of course, they were silenced with hush money. I've heard someone claim that the drink burned a hole through the stomach of someone they know."

Sokka gasps in horror, while his hands are rubbing his stomach in a soothing circular pattern.

"I told you that you shouldn't drink so much of that stuff, Sokka! Now the contents of your stomach are going to completely eviscerate!" Katara says half teasing, and half in concern.

Sokka stops the circular rubbing motions and looks down at his stomach in concern.

"I… uh, need to go to the bathroom." He scurries off; seemingly eager to relieve himself of the contents of his stomach.

Katara's thoughts are bombarded with worry for her brother, but upon contemplating the situation further, she remembers what sparked this specific subject matter.

The Blazers.

Katara turns her head and takes measured glances at each of the three girls. She doesn't want to get caught outwardly gawking at them, but her curiosity has peaked and has overruled her pride.

She didn't get to have that good of a look last time they enchanted the entire school into a stupor, so she finds that now is as good a time as any to make her observations.

She first takes in the extremely long brown braid hanging over the side of a chair. The girl with said braid has the same perky expression she saw a few days ago when she practically pranced down the hall. Her smile has literally not left her face since entering the room, and Katara finds herself wondering what someone so cheerful is doing hanging out with the other two.

The other two girls look very unapproachable. The thin girl with the Minnie Mouse-like buns at the top of her head wears a look on her face that can't be described as anything other than placid. She constantly looks unimpressed with everything around her, her facial muscles not moving an inch, which makes Katara wonder if she possibly has some mild case of Bell's Palsy. She sits with the perfect posture, head raised, not slouching or cowering herself away from the world despite the monotonous nature of her body language.

The other girl also seems unapproachable to Katara, but not in the way Minnie Mouse buns is. She's always got this all knowing smirk plastered on her face. Though she is seemingly happy, the happiness does not reach her eyes. Her eyes are shrewd and piercing, like a lion on the prowl; ready to pounce and take down its prey at any time and at any cost. She too carries herself with a dignified posture; almost akin to royalty. Her hair is neatly pinned up, her clothes completely devoid of any wrinkles, and her table manners are very refined and proper.

Like a hawk the girl in question snaps her head and makes direct eye contact with Katara. Usually when people catch her staring at them Katara quickly casts her gaze away, but this time she doesn't. She maintains eye contact; her eyes deep molten gold and penetrating. Her glance is sharp enough to cut stone, yet Katara doesn't cower. She doesn't know why she does it, but she refuses to back down. Class differences should not make a difference in how people are treated, and she's not gonna let some pampered rich girl make her feel lesser in this moment.

After what seems like forever, Azula lifts her eyebrows in mock surprise, and her smirk broadens; seeming very amused by what just transpired between. The girl with the long braid something to get her attention so she breaks eye contact with Katara, falling back into what most likely is a superficial conversation.

Katara also turns her attention back to her companion and finds Suki looking at her smiling and seemingly bursting with pride.

"Can't say I've seen something like that before in my 3 years of attending this school."

"Huh… something like what?" Katara responds, stunned.

"Something like defiantly staring Miss Queen Bee over there down and not being the first one to look away. You've got guts girl."

"Well, I don't see it as having guts. She's just a person just like me, made of flesh and blood, like me. Only difference is that she's wearing shoes more expensive than my entire wardrobe put together."

Suki nods, not looking completely convinced of her rationalization.

"I see what you mean. Though others here won't see it that way," she says motioning to everyone around them, "I mean good for you, you really don't have anything to lose being oppositional to her. Since you're not from here, and you have no brand or image to plug." She says with an inch of conspiration running through her tone.

"And what about you? Do you have something to plug?" Katara asks, curious.

Her whole mood shifts from excitable to melancholy within seconds. "Not anymore," she says solemnly; looking off into the far distance. She has this strange look on her face; looking as though she's pondering, brooding, and scheming all at the same time.

Suki seems suddenly unreachable, and Katara doesn't know how to pull her out of her reverie, and it's making her pretty uncomfortable.

"Ahhhh, that's all better. No wonder they call it Inferno, that stuff almost burnt a hole through my bladder." Sokka says, returning. He's rubbing his stomach precariously, as if the effects of the Inferno beverage haven't completely dissipated yet.

Suki snaps out of her intense trance, and smiles at Sokka fondly.

"If you two oppose the stupid social hierarchy that dictates the daft actions of almost every student that goes to this school, I suggest you stop investing your money into the Inferno brand. As well as to preserve the lining of your stomach," she says, shooting Sokka a sly grin.

Sokka brushes what she says off, and starts going off on some tangent about certain carbs he's going to implement into his diet now that Inferno is out of the picture.

Katara pays him no mind, though. She thinks about how the students in this school are as vapid and shallow as she expected to be, and is yet still stunned by the lengths that people will go; how they turn into absolute sheeps in order to preserve an image, or maintain a reputation.

She tries to shut out the resentment and anger she feels towards those manufactured ways of living life. She needs to mind her own business, and keep focus on her values if she wants to survive going to school here. She's just gonna have to suck it up, and block out all the worthless white noise.

Finally the bell rings, and it's the blessed last period of the day. Marine Biology is her last class, and she's grateful for that; so she can have something to look forward to while enduring the rest of the school day. Though she already knows pretty much all there is to know about the subject; just the simple rehashing of material she adores is better than any other lesson. Especially math given that in today's lesson they were learning ratios, and her teacher gave them an assignment for homework to calculate their Instagram likes to followers ratios. She didn't have any damn Instagram, goddamnit!

Taking a breath to quell her rage, she makes her way into the class that is her only safe haven here. She makes to walk to her seat.

"Oh, Katara, come here. Have you not heard?" Her teacher, , calls out to her.

"Heard what?" Katara says making her way to his desk.

"Unfortunately, the class is overbooked so we had to let some students go at random… and you're one of them," he finishes awkwardly and reluctantly.

Katara's eyes almost bug out of her head.

WHAT!? She shouts, and flinches in response. Automatically she feels bad for her powerful reaction and tries to retract her anger and surprise just a little bit.

"I mean... what? I enrolled for this class all the way back in May, that was before any of the other students even chose their electives; that's what I was told!"

"I'm sorry, Katara, but you've already been registered for another class. I also heard that you're only a sophomore, am I correct?"

She nods solemnly in response.

"Then you can surely take this class next year! Or even the year after that!" he remarks, exuberantly.

"But I don't want to take this class in 1 or 2 years, I want to take it NOW!" she says while slamming her palm on his desk, causing some of his papers to fly off the desk and scatter across the room.

The preclass chitter chatter is brought to a halt thanks to Katara's violent outburst. She looks around and sees students in the class staring back at her wide-eyed, while looking sorta scared.

She even hears take a big gulp with what may be fright.

Again, she feels shameful for her impulsively violent reaction.

I'm very, very, very, very, very, sorry , I don't know what came over me. I haven't been myself lately," she reasons, trying to make amends, "Just tell me what classroom I've got to go to and I'll go.

He nods rapidly in response, his round pair of glasses nearly falling off his face. He writes the room number on a post-it, and Katara quickly snatches it out of his hand, wanting to get the hell out of there.

She races through the halls, lost in a frenzy of excitable energy. She just completely humiliated herself by causing such a stupid scene infront of 30 students plus the only teacher she tolerated here.

She's always been able to keep her emotions in check, Sokka was usually the one with the out of left-field outbursts. Ever since the move here she finds that she is plagued with feelings of agitation, uncertainty, and straight up defiance; which she finds extremely uncomfortable given the restive nature of her life for the first 15 years.

She gets to room 326, her destination, and begrudgingly enters the classroom.

Upon entering the room, she is met with a shriek of joy.

"Ooooo! 26, perfect! Looks like we've got an even amount of students now, which means we finally got a partner lined up for you, Zuko. And what would be your name, young lady?" The jovial pudgy lady asks excitedly.

"Ka-Katara, pleased to meet you" she stammers out awkwardly, trying to make amends for her behavior 10 minutes past by acting extra formal/polite.

"Katara, what a lovely name! Welcome to Home Economics! Most students like to call it Housekeepers Ed," she laughs at the remark longer and louder than what society would deem appropriate for that corny joke, "You're the second newcomer of the day, Zuko here just got his electives switched as well, and now that we have an even number of students you two can now be partners for the group projects assignments." Say, hi Zuko!" she says pointing the left side of the room in a patronizing tone, sounding as if she were encouraging her kid to greet someone.

"Hi, Zuk-'' Katara starts unenthusiastically, but cuts herself off when she sees the person she is greeting. The first thing she notices is a big red scarring marring almost the entire left side of his face. She's never seen such a malady on a human in the flesh and she gasps in surprise. She then gets a hold of herself, and realizes how rude she's being, so she makes to finish her greeting.

"ooo- Hi, Zuko! I'm Katara, though I bet you know that since you probably just heard me introduce myself to this lady- uh, I mean teacher. I'm sorry what's your name?" She says biting her lip, trying to physically restrain herself from having a straight out cringe fest.

"You can call me , dear; now why don't you go take a seat next to your partner so we can get class started," she suggests warmly.

"R-right, here I go," she says stupidly. She hears a few snickers from the rest of the class. She makes her way to the seat located right behind Zuko and notices he's not snickering. In fact, he's not looking at her at all. He's staring down in defiance, obviously avoiding eye contact with her.

_And why should he want to make eye contact with you, dummy! You just openly gasped at the sight of his face in front of the whole class._

She takes the seat behind him, not knowing if she should say something to remedy her rude greeting. She opts not to do so now; deciding to wait until she can think of the most proper and polite thing to say.

Class dawdles on, and Katara hardly pays any attention to what's going on. Her mind is wrapped up with concocting potential apologies.

_Sorry I gasped at your face! I just didn't expect to see such gruesome burns on your face when I looked at you!_

_Sorry I embarrassed you in front of the whole class, but I embarrassed myself today too. I punched a desk! It hurts! Look I've got a mark! _

_Sorry, I'm stupid! I'm honestly just the worst. Forgive me? Sorry… Sorry. I think the scar is kinda cool! Though, I'm sure it hurt to get! _

She decides not to run with any of these apologies, and before she knows it the bell rings, meaning the school day is over.

She moves to tap him on the shoulder, but he is up and out of his seat before she could lift her finger up half an inch.

He straight up bolts out of the classroom, and Katara takes that as a sign that he maybe doesn't want to be approached at this very moment.

She sighs, sinking back in her seat. For the first time in four days she doesn't exit the school as if it's on fire. She's ruminating on the crazy day she's had. She wishes she could take it all back, the desk punching, the gasping; everything but the heated eye contact she made with the princess of the school. She's quite proud of herself for that.

She's busy self-loathing when suddenly a noise calls out from the hallway.

"That's the girl who punched ' desk! I swear the old dude almost shat himself. I didn't realize what a pushover he was."

She looks up and sees a guy outwardly pointing at her with his finger while his two friends get a good look at her.

She sneers, and once they see that she sees them they make a hasty departure. Possibly fearing the wrath of her ferocious fists.

After huffing for the umpteenth time this day, she stands up and makes her way out of the side entrance; heading to the parking lot. Sokka's probably been waiting a while.


End file.
